Re: Integral types and own type definitions (was Re: Suggested method for returning a string from a C program?)

On 3/29/25 12:39, Scott Lurndal wrote:

James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> writes:

...

"Make a $1,000 payment from the checking account on the mortgage"
describes the transaction, but most people who aren't familiar with
accounting terms, would have trouble when reading that description
deciding whether the checking account should be credited with $1,000, or
debited, and similarly for the Mortgage.

>
I find that difficult to agree with. I have my grandfather's farm
records from the 40s and 50s. Born in 1903 on the same farm, eighth
grade education, yet his ledger sheets are double-entry "income"
and "expenses". Both recorded as positive
values (the difference beteween the sum of each column is the
profit or loss for the year).

One anecdote doesn't count for much - there's lots of people who've
taught themselves accounting to handle their financial affairs - but
there's also lots of people who tried and failed, and many more who
didn't even try. The key question is how many people fall into each of
those categories, and an anecdote cannot answer that question.

My father was a CPA. I took a brief course in accounting that was
intended to better prepare me for a possible job writing financial
applications. Two of my sisters-in-law are accountants. My wife aspired
to switch careers to accounting, and took an accounting classes every
semester for several years. I read her textbooks to help her achieve
that goal, and found them easy to understand. Therefore, these concepts
seem easy to me. But my general experience with people who aren't
accounting professionals (including my wife) is that most are not at all
familiar with those terms.